Those Apps That You “deleted” on Your Mac May Still Be Hanging Around Somewhere.

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Windows has a dedicated section for uninstalling apps, but Mac doesn’t. On a Mac, this should be easier – you delete an app just like you would a file, by dragging it to the Trash and then emptying the Trash. This works great for many apps, but some are harder to uninstall because they leave their mark on multiple system folders.

The AppCleaner Mac utility is the most efficient way to remove most Mac apps and all their associated files (it also cleans library and preferences files). However, there are some apps that cannot be completely removed without a couple of extra steps.

VM Parallels

The Parallels VM application itself is fairly easy to uninstall (simply drag the application to the Trash and then empty the Trash). But Parallels leaves behind any virtual machine you’ve used. So before uninstalling Parallels, open the application, click the Parallels icon in the menu bar, and go to Control Center . Here, right-click on the virtual machine, select the Delete option, and then click on Move to Trash . Empty the Trash to free up more than 10 GB of disk space.

McAfee Antivirus

To completely uninstall McAfee Antivirus, you really need to use the official uninstaller that comes with the application – you’ll find it in your Applications folder as ” McAfee Internet Security Uninstaller “. Run the wizard and follow the instructions to completely uninstall it.

Adobe Creative Cloud Apps

To uninstall apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, and more, open the Creative Cloud app on your Mac. In the toolbar, find the app you want to uninstall, click the three-dot menu button, and select the ” Uninstall ” button. Choose whether you want to save your settings and then wait for the uninstall process to complete.

Then uninstall the Creative Cloud app itself – Adobe now includes an uninstaller with the app. Open the Finder app, navigate to the Adobe Creative Cloud folder and click the ” Uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud ” button; follow the instructions to uninstall the application.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the most sticky Mac apps out there, using all sorts of workarounds to gain access to system-level features. Sign out of Dropbox and close the app. Then drag the Dropbox app to the trash and empty the trash (you can also use AppCleaner to uninstall Dropbox). Then open the Finder app and click Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar. Type ” /Library ” and click the ” Go ” button. Here, delete the ” DropboxHelperTools ” folder.

To remove Dropbox settings, enter ” ~/.dropbox ” in the ” Go To Folder ” window and delete all files in the folder.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft offers the Office Application Uninstaller for Windows, but not for Mac. Instead, find the specific Office application in the Applications folder and drag it to the Trash. To easily remove related files, use AppCleaner; to go the manual route, you can delete files from the Finder app yourself. Click Go > Go to Folder and type /Library . Here, find and delete the following files:

  • ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.errorreporting
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.excelcom.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Outlook
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.RMS-XPCService
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Word
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.ms
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.errorreporting
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Excel
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.onenote.mac
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
  • ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.microsoft.Word
  • ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
  • ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.outlook.plist
  • ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
  • ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Word.plist

Microsoft Teams

Teams is another Microsoft app that will take some time to completely uninstall. Sign out of your account and close (or force close) the Microsoft Teams app to make sure it’s not running in the background. Drag the Microsoft Teams app icon to the trash (and empty the trash). Then open the Finder app and click Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar. Type ” /Library ” and click the ” Go ” button. Find and delete the following files:

  • ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams
  • ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams.shipit
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/Application Cache/Cache
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/blob_storage
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/Cache
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/Databases
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/GPUCache
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/IndexedDB
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Local Storage
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Commands/tmp

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